Those were the days
by Sofie Cee
Summary: Draco and Hermione get into a bit of a sticky situation...


**Ok, sooo. I wrote this story a few months ago, and the concept itself is a few years old. I was so frustrated at because it wasn't uploading that I just gave up. Let me know if my frustrations were worth the effort. :-)**

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"Stupid Malfoy!" I, Hermione Jane Granger, was fuming mad. Not only am I in the depths of the Forbidden Forest for my Care of Magical Creatures class - but I am also stuck with Draco Bloody Malfoy. He was being of exactly no help at all, only muttering to himself about working with mudbloods and whining about our current location. 

I tried to tune him out enough to search for our creature, the Clabbert. I had memorized part of the passage my copy of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ about this particular creature.

_The Smooth and hairless skin is a mottled green, the hands and feet are webbed, and the arms and legs are long ans supple, enabling the Clabbert to swing between branches with the agility of an orangutan. The Clabbert's most distinctive feature is the large pustule in the middle of its forehead, which turns scarlet and flashes when it sense danger. American wizards once kept Clabberts in their gardens to give early warning of approaching muggles, but the International Confederation of Wizards had introduced fines..._

It was proving very difficult, needless to say.

"Pleases, either shut up and help or go back to the castle and let me complete the project in peace! You are probably scaring away all the Clabberts anyway with your childish stomping, the whole forest can hear your footsteps!" I said, rounding on him. He was frustrating me to no end today.

"No way I am going to leave my grade up to some filthy mudblood. The Clabberts aren't scared by my feet, but by your repulsive face!" Malfoy sneered at me, disdain evident in his voice.

"Then kindly be quiet so we can get this project done as quick as possible." Without another word, I turned on my heel and began walking in the forest again. Our project was to observe our assigned creatures in their natural habitat without interfering, and that would become very difficult with all the noise Malfoy was making.

Malfoy grumbled but his steps became quieter until I could no longer hear them, and his complaints all but came to a complete stop.

After another ten minutes of fruitless searching, we were ready to turn and head back. Then suddenly, I saw the small little creature. It was a baby Clabbert, who had undoubtedly wandered away from its mother. Smiling, I pulled out my notebook and motioned for Malfoy to remain still and quiet. His only response was to sneer in my direction.

As I began to take note of the vegetation surrounding the Clabbert (the plants - did they have magical properties?) When a spell came flying out of no where at all, hitting the plant beside my little friend which proceeded to burst into flames and die. The Clabbert turned tail and ran. I spun around to Malfoy, infuriated beyond control.

"Why did you do that, Malfoy? Now we will only have to work on this longer!" I yelled at him.

"That spell was not me! I-" He was cut off by the sounds of voices in the distance.

We turned in the direction of the ruckus, and, as if drawn to it, the two of us made our way to the direction that the sound had come from. As we neared, we saw a group of men, all in black robes and cloaks standing in a circle. Malfoy put his arm out in a silent gesture telling me to go no further. He put his finger over his mouth in the universal sign for "Be Quiet"

The men appeared to be arguing amongst themselves. Who were these people, I wondered to myself.

"I think we should do it now, while we are at Hogwarts." One of the cloaked figures said.

"We are ill prepared for such an attack, it would be foolish for us to rush in today when we could be exponentially more successful if we return at a later date." Another stated.

"Yes, but who knows if we will be able to get on the grounds again, it was almost difficult this time" The first replied.

"We need more time before we attempt any mudblood killings!" Snapped the other.

Now, this was getting very shady, as far as I could tell. Despite my natural curious nature, I somehow felt that I needed to leave and fast. I turned to Draco and motioned wildly with my arms in a manner that I believed to be asking him to leave the forest. I needed him to be the guide out. He gave me a look of utter bewilderment.

By this time, I was getting so nervous, my arms were flailing all over the place in a desperate need for him to understand my meaning. Suddenly, all my arm swinging threw me off balance. I toppled over and fell with an audible thump into a pile of noisy branches. Malfoy threw an alarmed look my way, and back at the squabble the men in cloaks had been having.

"What was that?" A member of the group asked another.

"Who is there?" One of them demanded

They all started to make their way over to Malfoy and I's hiding spot.. I scrambled to my feet as Malfoy grabbed my arm and pulled me away briskly. Noramlly, I wouldn't toleratre such behavoir from the little ferret, but I decided that at the moment he was the lesser of the two evils and allowed him to pull me along like a child.

"Hey, there they go!" We heard the shout from behind us. Malfoy released my arm.

"Run!" He said and took off. I ran the fastest I had ever run in my life, and that included the time I thought my cousin's dog was going to eat me. The men behind us were closing the gap we had started out with inbetween us. Malfoy all the sudden, tripped over a root in the forest floor and went skidding. Oh no, I thought, this is the end. Bye Mom, I love you...

That's when I noticed the little door that had appeared in the trunk of the tree Malfoy had tripped over. I stared astonished at it for a moment before grabbing his robe to pull him in with me and shut the door plunging us into darkness.

"Well, Hello there, dear children." A voice said behind us, and I had a feeling not all of the danger had passed for today.

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**I know its short, but you tell me what you think. **


End file.
